ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has said that after the Supreme Court’s verdict, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has completely lost its credibility and it has been proved beyond doubt that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been “politicised and [is] acting with bias”.

Vowing to raise its voice against the ongoing “political victimisation” of the party leadership at every forum — including parliament — the PPP said it wanted constitution of another JIT with the mandate to investigate on whose directives the present JIT had prepared its report.

Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, a spokesman for PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, said the Supreme Court’s verdict had declared that the decision to put the names of Mr Bhutto-Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on the Exit Control List (ECL) was led by ill intention, showing that the JIT report was “not based on facts rather is a product of political pressure”.

Senator Khokhar said the entire federal cabinet should apologise to the PPP chairman and the Sindh chief minister for putting their names on the ECL. The PTI leaders who were demanding the resignation of Murad Ali Shah should themselves resign, he added.

Says SC verdict shows JIT has lost its credibility and it has been proved now that NAB has been politicised

Talking to Dawn, PPP secretary general Farhatullah Khan Babar said that the apex court had itself asked the JIT members to explain as to who had actually decided to put the name of Mr Bhutto-Zardari on the ECL.

Mr Babar said that it had been proved beyond doubt that the present government at the Centre had used the JIT as a tool to politically victimise the opposition.

Mr Babar said the PPP would expose the “weaknesses” in the JIT report at every forum. He said that since the court had referred the matter to NAB, the party would fight it out at the accountability courts, besides raising the matter inside and outside parliament.

The PPP leader said the party leadership had already rejected the findings and recommendations of the JIT through their response submitted to the SC, terming it fake, baseless and an effort to demean them. Earlier, PPP’s information secretary Dr Nafisa Shah said in a statement that the JIT’s talks of sealing Bilawal House had proved its animosity with Benazir Bhutto.

Dr Shah said the members of the JIT shared antagonistic sentiments regarding the Bhutto family and the JIT report was based on lies and misleading. She said that “prime minister-select Imran Khan” was shielding himself with the help of institutions which would have a disastrous impact on his party. She said Bilawal House was a symbol of democracy for the workers and followers of the PPP.

“It is not the first time that the PPP is battling anti-democratic forces,” she said, adding that the PPP would continue to follow Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ideology despite the hurdles.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2019